Plate Spinning 101

During my days in my office, I juggle many different tasks such as answering email, writing projects, getting out proposals for my agency, face to face meetings, teaching at conferences, online marketing and many other tasks. Often it feels like I'm one of the performers who are spinning a series of plates. As a kid, I watched the plate spinners on television and it was remarkable to see if they could keep the plates spinning without breaking anything. Occasionally a plate fell and broke.

Some times in my plate spinning something important gets missed, and then the plate falls and crashes. For example, several times a client has decided that I'm not doing enough for them and cancel our working relationship and troop off looking for a better deal. While I don't like it, I fully recognize that it's their choice. When it comes to book projects, I encourage and advocate for those who I can and let the rest go. From my years in the publishing business, I understand there are no quick fixes or solutions. The wheels inside these publishing houses often turn very slowly (at least to the outside observer).

Successful plate spinning is a developed skill. Just watch this YouTube video to see how a novice is at spinning plates:

Am I successful all the time at skilled plate spinning? No and in fact some days I wonder if I'm spinning any plates at all yet I continue to cross things off my to-do list. Are you crossing things off of your list? I hope so.

Today I picked up a 72 page free Ebook to help you with blogging called The Roadmap To Become A Blogger, Five Major Milestones You Must Cross to Become A Successful Blogger. I've not read it yet but it looks interesting. I hope it will be useful to you and your writing life.